The San Francisco audience welcomed her with a two-minute standing ovation, and then hung on every one of Justice Sonia Sotomayor's words.

The rock-star greeting for only the third woman and the first Hispanic to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court contrasted with the reason for her appearance before the Commonwealth Club last Monday. Her purpose, she said, was "I wanted to write a book that at the end the reader could say, 'She is just like me, and if she could do it, I can too.' "

As she told about what brought her to write "My Beloved World," I was struck by how different yet how similar her story was to that of the first female Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O'Connor. I am fascinated by women who have risen to be great leaders and shapers of culture, and in that interest I had gone in October to hear O'Connor speak at a Commonwealth Club event also held at the Herbst Theatre.

The two women are like bookends: one conservative, one liberal. One white, one Puerto Rican. One who grew up on a remote Arizona ranch, one who was raised in the public housing projects in the South Bronx. One a range-riding cowgirl, one a diabetic.

One who credited her parents with imbuing her with a sense of responsibility to do public service, one whose father was an alcoholic and died when she was young, and whose mother was emotionally absent. The key person in Sotomayor's young life, her grandmother, believed in brujeria. That is, witchcraft, Caribbean style.

Yet their personal stories carried similar themes. They each set high goals. They shared a passion for the law and how it shapes our world. "Our decisions make a difference in people's lives," Sotomayor said.

They both noted how heavily the sense of obligation weighs upon them to make sure their judicial rulings are sound. The world, not just the whole country, looks to the Supreme Court as a beacon of democracy, Sotomayor noted.

They both cautioned legal restraint in which cases they take up or choose to reject. Sotomayor, a former trial judge, said the high court should avoid some rulings that may play out differently in the lower courts. "Sometimes I say, we will just complicate things more."

They both sought to attend prestigious universities and they both found themselves among classmates who came from what seemed like a universe away from their worlds.

"I was an alien," Sotomayor said of her Princeton years. "It is hard to feel part of something that is so foreign to you."

Yet she learned to be comfortable with herself. "I was different, but that's OK."

That's the heart of the message of her book. Don't be dissuaded from reaching for your big dreams because of where you come from, or what others might think about your family - even a grandmother who believes in witchcraft. "Everybody," Sotomayor reminded the audience, "has a crazy uncle."